More On Hope

Congratulations to Linda, who won my January contest. Linda, I hope you enjoy reading THE MOST UNSUITABLE HUSBAND.

I am amazed at the luck of some people with contests. I have a friend who has won three cars in her adult life, plus trips, cash, and other prizes. My eldest daughter also wins a lot of contests. Once she won and took me with her on an all-expense-paid trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The most exciting thing I've ever won was Alice Duncan's contest in which the prize was a book and a painting by Maggie Davis. The painting is of a cat among iris and daisies by a rock wall. The cat looks exactly like my attack cat, Delilah, except that we never let Delilah out of our house. I have the painting hanging in my office near my computer.

Why do people like me who seldom win continue to enter contests or buy a lottery ticket? I believe it's a part of the reason we read romance and cozy mysteries--Hope lifts us. We may have problems today, but we can hope that things will get better tomorrow. And in our writing we offer the hope that good will triumph over evil, criminals will be punished, justice will be served, and love will last a lifetime. Literary critics and literary and non-fiction authors may sneer, but our books outsell theirs. As a friend said, they should follow the money. Over half the mass market books sold in the United States are romance. Next is mystery. Proving to me that we don't mind crying or edge-of-the-seat suspense but--at the end--we want happily ever after. Hope for a better life tomorrow.